Danish electronics manufacturers TC Electronic, are known for making some of the widely used studio gear on the planet. Recently, they have delved deeper into the realm of pedals, and honestly the world is a better place for it.
Features
The Hall of Fame Reverb Pedal is a robust little unit that boasts 10 “environment” presets, plus the option to engage a custom, preloaded reverb via TC Electronic’s Tone Print system.
Room: mid-sized room sound. Kind of a “natural” reverb.
Hall: slighly “deeper” effect than Room.
Spring: designed to mimic a spring reverb unit, like what you might find in a Fender combo amp. Surprisingly quite realistic, this preset responds to pick scrapes and thumps just like a physical reverb unit does.
Plate: based on the classic studio reverb sound.
Church: deeper, more spacious than Room or Hall…imagine playing in a substantially large building like a cathedral.
Mod: adds a chorusing/pitch bend-y effect on to the tail of the reverb sound. Very nice for lush, shoegaze atmospheres.
LoFi: low fidelity reverb setting. Not completely sure what the point of this one is, but perhaps if you are looking for a power-sag kind of take on the Room setting, then this one is for you.
Tile: imagine playing in a tiled bathroom. That’s what this is like.
Amb: this is the “ambient” setting. Not as extreme as the Mod preset, but more complex decay than the Room preset.
Gate: a surprisingly responsive gated reverb preset. Like what you would hear on 1980’s drums, but on your guitar instead. Once you stop playing, the reverb immediately cuts off. Particularly useful if you are wanting a long decay and a very wet signal, but don’t want subsequent attacks to be lost in oceans of trailing reverb tails.
Tone Print: allows you to engage your own custom preset. In addition to the 10 settings listed above, TC Electronic has developed software that allows you to create, in detail, your own unique reverb patches and load them onto your Hall of Fame pedal, via USB cable. In fact, TC Electronic also offers a plethora of artist designed presets from the likes of Steve Vai, Steven Wilson, Paul Gilbert, Guthrie Govan, Albert Lee, and Satchel, to name a few. All of this is available for free on their website!
Whew, that’s a lot of stuff, but we haven’t even gotten to the other knobs yet! The other three knobs control the Decay (reverb time), FX Level (wet/dry ratio), and Tone. Additionally, there is a mini switch that gives you two options for shaping the Pre-Delay: Short, and Long.
The TC Electronic Hall of Fame features two inputs and two outputs, for true stereo configurations. The pedal is branded True Bypass, but according to TC Electronic’s documentation, it is that and then some:
“With optimized headroom, True Bypass or Buffered Bypass switch and Kill-Dry on/off, this pedal guarantees optimal tonal integrity and zero loss of tone. And, no matter if the pedal is on or off your precious dry sound is always passed through the pedal unharmed in all it’s pure analog glory due to an Analog-Dry-Through.”
These hidden tweaks can be engaged via the two DIP switches just underneath the back cover of the pedal.
And finally, the switch itself does not click which means that the Hall of Fame can be engaged during some of the quiter moments of your set without that annoying click sound. Now, some people have grown accustomed to that click (it lets them know the pedal is on), but this issue is remedied through the inclusion of a very bright red LED light.
Conclusion
Overall, the TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb Pedal offers a ridiculous amount of sonic options, at a relatively reasonable price, and in a small (MXR size) pedal casing. It covers all of the standard reverb sounds most commonly used on commercial recordings, and then some. Although the Tone Print option does allow for some very detailed customization, players who are looking for a reverb pedal that will take them into experimental, or highly space-y territory may want to look elsewhere, as the Hall of Fame mainly nails the standards (for folks who want more ‘verb on tap, we recommend checking out the T-2 Reverb.)
If you are looking for classic, studio-quality reverb sounds in a convenient and tweakable package, the TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb Pedal is hard to beat.
Specs
True Bypass: Yes (switchable to buffered via DIP switch)
USB: 1x Type Mini-B (firmware)
Battery Cavity: No
DC in: Yes (power supply required and sold separately)
Input(s): 2 x 1/4”
Output(s): 2 x 1/4”
